SSS-Class Profession: The Path to Mastery

I waited about an hour, maybe two, before carefully shifting my weight. Evelyn was still asleep on my lap, her breathing slow and even. She still deserved some rest, so no matter what I didn't want to wake her up. After all, she was my girlfriend in some sense. What kind of person would I be if I didn't let those close to me rest? Unfortunately, moving without disturbing her required more precision than I'd like to admit, but slowly and surely, I managed it—sliding a cushion under her head as I stood, making sure she stayed comfortable.

She didn't even stir.

Camille and Sienna had retreated to the kitchen at some point, their voices a low murmur as they talked about something I couldn't quite make out. Perhaps Sienna was talking about what she was making and Camille wanted to taste test it or maybe Camille was making a new outfit for Sienna. Regardless I could never predict what those 2 would ever do when they are paired together. The penthouse felt quieter now, calmer. But my mind wasn't quiet. It hadn't been since that call ended.

I made my way down the hall toward Alexis's office. The door was slightly ajar, and I could see her inside, sitting at her desk with several documents spread out in front of her. She looked up as I pushed the door open.

"You should be resting more," she said immediately, her platinum hair catching the light as she leaned back in her chair. "A short nap like that won't do you much good, Rey."

"I'm fine," I said, stepping inside and very gently closing the door behind me.

She raised an eyebrow. "You've been awake for over thirty hours without any proper sleep. Just short term naps and some caffeine. You just spent a month in Brazil dealing with political chaos and from what Evelyn had told me, gang negotiations. You're very clearly not fine."

"My skills help with that," I replied, which wasn't entirely untrue. Superior Endurance kept me functional even when exhaustion should've knocked me flat. "I feel fine enough."

"Functional isn't the same as recovered," she countered, crossing her arms. "You're going to burn yourself out if you keep this up. You promised that you'd take care of yourself more Rey. Don't make your words have no meaning behind them."

"I'll rest later," I said, waving off her concern. "Right now, I need to talk to you about something more important."

Her expression shifted slightly, curiosity replacing the sternness. "Alright. What is it?"

I glanced back toward the door, making sure it was fully closed, then turned to face her properly. "Evelyn. The whole blindfold situation. I want to fix it."

Alexis's face softened, and she let out a slow breath. "I know you do Rey. We all do."

"So what are we doing about it?" I pressed. "There has to be something we can try. Some treatment, some method—something. You're the best doctor in the world and likely the best in history. There has to be something you can do."

She was quiet for a moment, her fingers drumming against the desk in that thoughtful way she had. Then she nodded. "I'm working on it. And I've actually made some progress."

That caught me off guard. "Progress? Since when?"

"Since I took the initiative," she said, standing and walking over to a filing cabinet. She pulled out a folder and handed it to me. "I contacted President Dubois of France a few weeks ago. Asked him to send me all the information they had on the Cain Protocol. It was actually a bit more than I had initially expected."

I stared at her. "You did what?"

"You heard me." She crossed her arms again, her tone matter-of-fact. "Dubois is an ally. He wants the World President dealt with as much as we do. When I explained the situation—that one of our own had been subjected to the experiment without consent—he agreed to share everything France had access to. I mean he would have no reason, after all a lot of people in Europe were affected too. If we could find a cure then it would be great for all of them."

I opened the folder, scanning through the documents. Medical reports. Brain scans. Diagrams of neural pathways. It was all dense, technical, the kind of thing that would take me hours to parse through even with my knowledge base and skills that I had copied from Alexis. I guess even with the skills, there's a massive difference in ability if you don't have the job itself.

"So what did you find?" I asked, looking back up at her.

"It's complicated," Alexis admitted, leaning against her desk. "The Cain Protocol alters specific regions of the brain—primarily the visual cortex and the amygdala. When someone affected by the protocol sees you, their brain perceives you as an immediate, existential threat. It bypasses rational thought entirely. The urge to attack is automatic."

"I know that much," I said, my jaw tight. "What I want to know is if we can undo it."

She hesitated, and that hesitation told me everything I needed to know before she even spoke.

"We're working on it," she said carefully. "France doesn't have all the information—just fragments. The experiment was conducted across multiple countries in Europe, and not all of them are willing to cooperate. But we've been piecing together what we can. Running simulations. Testing theories."

"And?" I pressed.

She met my eyes, her expression grim. "And the problem is that the changes were made directly to the brain. Undoing them without causing damage is... well difficult to say the least."

"How difficult?"

Alexis exhaled, and I could see her weighing how much to tell me. Finally, she said, "Based on what we know right now? If we attempted a reversal procedure, there's about a twenty-five percent chance the subject becomes brain dead which is the worse case scenario for our treatment. Another twenty-five percent chance the experiment can never be undone and they're left in the same state or worse like actually blinded or trouble with memory. And a fifty percent chance the reversion is successful."

I felt my stomach drop. "So in short, it's a Fifty-fifty."

"At best," she said quietly.

I turned away, running a hand through my hair. Fifty-fifty. A coin flip. Evelyn's entire future—her ability to ever look at me again—hanging on a goddamn coin flip.

"That's not good enough," I said, my voice harder than I intended.

"I know," Alexis replied, her tone softening. "That's why we're not rushing into anything. We're still researching. Still gathering data. But things like these are going to take a lot of time Rey."

"How long?" I asked, turning back to face her. "How long until those odds improve even by the slightest amount?"

She hesitated again. "Well...It could be anywhere from a couple of weeks to years. France is running investigations in other European countries, trying to get more complete information on how the experiment works. But it's slow going. Some countries are stonewalling us. Others don't have records. And the World President's people have been scrubbing evidence wherever they can. Even if some countries are our allies, they wouldn't accept another country to randomly start probing into their intelligence network. That would undermine the entire sovereignty of the country and would make for bad political moves that could worsen the country's stability."

Years.

The word sat heavy in my chest. Years of Evelyn wearing that blindfold. Years of her not being able to look at me without her brain screaming at her to kill me. Years of living like this.

I hated it. Hated every second of it. There had to be something that I could do.

"We'll figure it out," Alexis said, stepping closer. "I promise. I'm not giving up on this, Rey. None of us are."

I nodded, though the frustration didn't ease. "I just... I want her to be able to see. To not have to live like this because of something they did to her."

"I know." Alexis's voice was gentle now, and she placed a hand on my arm. "We'll get there. I just need more time."

Before I could respond, her phone buzzed on the desk. She glanced at it, and her expression immediately shifted—her brow furrowing, lips pressing into a thin line. Whatever it was, it was clear that she hated the very thought of it and wanted to flat out reject whatever she had just read.

"What is it?" I asked.

She picked up the phone, reading the message carefully over and over before understanding that she was reading it properly and that it wouldn't change. Then she looked up at me, and I didn't like the look in her eyes.

"There might be one other thing we can do Rey. Though I don't like this idea at all," she said slowly.

"What?"

She set the phone down, her gaze steady but serious.

"We can look into your brain."